Some Erie Statistics

• Today we will look at some statitiscs for the Erie Area.
• These are in this workbook
• There are three worksheets
  • A list of income by category
  • A collection of historic population data for the county.
  • A set of party affiliation for presidential elections since 1960
• Each dataset represents a different type of information.
• But before we start, let me rant a bit.
  • Everything should be labeled
    • Both in your worksheet and in your graphs
    • There is no excuse for not labeling something.
    • Things that are not labeled are wrong.
  • Become familiar with a basic set of graphs and use them
    • Excel has many different types
    • Some are standard like circle (pie), line, bar and column
      • Learn to use these first.
    • Then consider more exotic types like radar.
      • Page 517 lists some of the more exotic chart types.
  • Don't include totals in a graph.
  • Learn to use the features you need to present your data.
  • Keep it simple
  • Avoid 3d charts unless you have 3d data.
• Let's build some charts
  • Insert tab, recommended charts.
    • Excel will suggest appropriate charts.
    • Make sure you select both labels and data.
    • Make sure you don't include totals.
    • Use ctrl-click to select disjoint data
  • The quick layout button is sometimes helpful
  • The Chart Styles is sometimes helpful
  • Messing with the individual components (labels, .. ) is a pain but
• Sparklines go against almost everything I have talked about.